Annamalai of the ‘We The Leaders’ organisation on Tuesday said the movement plans to contest the upcoming local body elections in Tamil Nadu. He made the remarks after inaugurating a plantation drive to plant 15,000 saplings near Mannargudi in Tiruvarur district.
He said the organisation is working to build leadership at every level, arguing that Tamil Nadu needs leaders across all 234 Assembly constituencies and at the grassroots. Referring to the scale of local governance, he spoke about the need for thousands of panchayat heads and a large number of panchayat councillors, adding that such leadership building takes time.
Annamalai said the movement would enter the local body polls once the state government announces the election schedule, and later contest the next Assembly election as well. He said the aim is to bring change from the village level up to the legislature.
Recalling his past campaigning for candidates in Mannargudi and in the Dharapuram bypoll, he criticised what he described as opportunistic politics, pointing to rapid shifts in political positions soon after elections. He said the movement was in the field to “break” such politics and stressed that its leaders and volunteers should not repeat the same practices.
He added that election-time campaigning does not translate into daily engagement with people’s problems, and argued that local leaders must be developed to address basic issues without expectations of personal gain.
